A Sampling of Clips for July 20, 2010

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

Homeopathic Treatment Works! (But Not in a Good Way.)
Nature, July 19 -- Good news for proponents of alternative medicine: a paper published in a prestigious medical journal appears to demonstrate that a homeopathic remedy really does have a pretty powerful biological effect. Unfortunately, this effect is to rob some users of their sense of smell. Terence Davidson and Wendy Smith, of UC San Diego, looked at a set of nine criteria* for establishing a causal relationship and concluded that zinc nasal therapy can cause smell loss (anosmia). Their paper also details 25 patients who turned up at their Nasal Dysfunction Clinic complaining of smell loss after use of homeopathic zinc gel – which, unusually for a homeopathic treatment, does have an active ingredient. More

Similar story on
WebMD
ABC Online, Australia

Stuck in the Past
Science News, July 19 -- Barbara Streisand probably wasn’t thinking about reprogrammed stem cells when she crooned “The Way We Were,” but it turns out that the cells also retain misty watercolor memories of their former selves. (Quotes Louise Laurent, a genomics researcher at UC San Diego) More

Jellyfish & Stingrays Visit San Diego Beaches
KPBS, July 19 -- If they didn't know it before, San Diego beachgoers are now certainly learning the stingray shuffle. In the last week, many swimmers have reported being stung by stingrays, some have been hospitalized. At the same time, black jellyfish have been spotted in San Diego Bay. They are a rare species, which can also leave a mark on an unlucky swimmer or surfer. Nigella Hillgarth, executive director of Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography talks about the issue. More

Tar Balls Wash Up in Oceanside, Encinitas
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 19 -- Tar balls have washed ashore at two beaches in North County, creating squishy messes across a few hundred yards of sand near Witherby Street in Oceanside and at a popular spot in Encinitas. (Quotes Jim Means, a graduate student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which is part of UC San Diego) More

Smear Tactics Endanger Climate
Central Daily Times, July 19 -- Two recent books, “Climate Cover- Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming,” by James Hoggan, and “Merchants of Doubt,” by UC San Diego science historian Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, detail the campaign to discredit climate science and climate scientists. These books show that there is a coordinated campaign strategy to deny the science and blacken the names of the scientists. These investigative books, thoroughly footnoted, reveal the funders and backgrounds of the foundations and self-appointed think tanks involved, detailing (where possible) the money trail from industry to the global warming deniers. More

* Subscribe with In the News and receive our clips automatically